To Steal an F-86

In article ,
(William Donzelli) writes:
Stephen Harding wrote in message ...

The Soviets developed a reciever that listened specifically for the wavelength
of the gunsight radar, thus giving the Soviet pilot some warning of
approaching USAF Sabers. It was prone to give false readings, but was an
overall invaluable feature.

This is interesting, but I must wonder why the Soviets were not clued
in sooner. The radars were X band units, not some oddball frequency. I
would think their countermeasures guys would have received the
emissions almost as soon as the radars were deployed.

Becasue fighter airplanes, especially Soviet-built fighter airplanes,
didn't carry ELINT gear. Panoramic receivers back then ere heavy and
complicated beasts that required very specially trained operators.

They'd also have to be looking at those frequencies, as well. Soviet
stuff at that time tended to be on the lower end of the mifrowave
scale, with most sets being in the VHF & UHF bands, and a few AAA Fire
Control systems being as high as S band. Ther actually was quite a
lot of controversy about the wisdom of fitting S-band jammers (APT-6?)
to the FEAF and SAC B-29s that were bombing the DPRK at night. The
bomber crews wanted the protection, but the PLanning and Strategy
people were worried about losing some over North Korea, and providing
the Soviets with examples of our latest jamming technology and
high-power S-Band transmitting tubes.


--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

(Peter Stickney) wrote in message ...

Becasue fighter airplanes, especially Soviet-built fighter airplanes,
didn't carry ELINT gear. Panoramic receivers back then ere heavy and
complicated beasts that required very specially trained operators.

Certainly the fighters did not have the equipment, but I would think
that the Soviets would have flown ELINT missions, or perhaps a ground
station picking up the emissions.

They'd also have to be looking at those frequencies, as well. Soviet
stuff at that time tended to be on the lower end of the mifrowave
scale, with most sets being in the VHF & UHF bands, and a few AAA Fire
Control systems being as high as S band.

The Soviets knew we liked X band for aircraft radars - it was
available in small quantities on the surplus market at the time.

--
William Donzelli